Sparks and Flames
by Madilayn
Summary: WARNING This fic contains discussion of M?F?M sexual relationship and M/M physical affection. Please do not read on if this offends you. Cap reflects on his family and how it's not what he expected. Set after his electrocution in "The Great Crash Diet"
1. Hank

He's lying beside me now. All long lean muscle, covered by tanned, surprisingly soft skin. I can feel the soft huffs of his breath against my neck as he sleeps, one arm resting across my belly. He admitted when he came in that he didn't sleep much last night at the station. Apparently none of my boys did. Worried over me. I cannot believe I did such a dammed fool thing like not putting my gloves back on and leaning on a metal car, with a live wire sparking. In fact, I can't believe I didn't order one of the boys to do something about it.

More poof that Chet's insane diet regime was addling our brains.

I don't need to be lying in bed like I am. I'm meant to be on bed rest for 24 hours but was told I can sit up if I wanted. But first Georgie needed me, and I won't deny I felt much better sleeping in our bed with her snuggled up against me – in much the same position as Mike is now.

In fact, I feel a bit like a football. Mike came home, and Georgie passed me off to him, though she has popped in between patients to check up on us. I'll be handed off again when my daughters come home from school. And then hopefully my family will decide then that I am capable of sitting up at the table so we can eat dinner together.

It's not the family I had ever anticipated that I would have. But I have to say it's one that I am not ever going to regret – and wouldn't change. It took me a while to completely understand when Georgie – my wife whom I love so deeply – said that I had to accept that she and Mike came as a package deal. At first, I thought that meant that Mike would continue to live in the house with us, and that I had to understand how close she and Mike were. After all, they'd known each other since they were about 6 years old.

This was despite me knowing she and Mike were occasional lovers, that they shared a bed when he was not on duty. And that I shared the bed with them both more often than not.

OK – I was more than a little dense. And not wanting to believe that not only had I fallen in love with Georgie, but also that I not only loved Mike – my best friend – but had also fallen in love with him. After all, I had been brought up _knowing_ that men couldn't be in love with other men. Absolutely not sexually attracted to them. Even just loving a male friend was a little frowned on – as if it was a weakness.

Social conditioning is hard to break, especially when you work in as intensely masculine jobs as I have – first the military, then the Fire Department.

Thank god I finally managed to see the truth, and the three of us are certainly a rock-solid partnership. The three of us always have each other's backs, and that was a huge help when my first wife, Suzie, and her husband were killed in that car accident in Washington DC.

Icy roads, a powerful car and a few too many drinks have destroyed more than one family. It left my twin 14-year-old daughters distraught on the other side of the country from me. I was actually on duty when the call came in and thank god for Mike and Georgie. By the time my replacement arrived at the Station, Georgie had packed us a bag each, booked flights to Washington, and turned up at the station ready for us to go.

A week and a half later when we returned with the girls – still distraught and not inclined to be separated from me – Mike had the girls' bedroom (they had one in our house that they used when they came to visit for a month over summer) ready, information on the local school and the paperwork to enroll them and hot pizza waiting.

And I fell more in love with him, just as I'd fallen more in love with Georgie who unhesitatingly stepped info the role of mother as the girls needed.

Nearly two years later, we're an unusual, but completely solid family unit. Georgie has gone from Auntie Georgie to Mama G, and Mike has become "Pop" to distinguish him from me, who remains Daddy (though Alison sometimes calls me Dad now – it never seems to stick though).

"You're meant to be resting." I'm startled out of my introspection by Mike's sleepy voice. I turn my head and look into equally sleepy blue eyes, filled with love and concern.

"I am resting, Michael. I'm lying here doing nothing. At least if I stayed in the hospital, I'd be able to watch television or read."

"You aren't. I know you far too well, Hank. Your body Is as taught as it is when you're on duty. You've been worrying that scene to death. Probably replaying the whole stupid scene over and over."

"I've already done that," I admit ruefully. "And I cannot believe I was such a dammed fool – doing the one thing I keep pulling you lot up on. I've now moved onto us. You. Me. Georgie. The girls. How I never anticipated this would be my family. How lucky I am. How much I love you and Georgie."

Mike's answer is a firm kiss, which I gladly return, with interest. "You better believe it, Hank." Then I prepare myself for what's coming as I see one of Mike's rare grins. "Georgie and I only pick the best slightly neurotic Fireman to fall in love with."

Zing. Stoker strokes again. I chuckle, and this time I initiate out kiss. Yeah – I love Mike Stoker as much as I love my wife, and my body reacts in a way that confirms I love him in the same way as her. "When I went down yesterday, I wanted more than anything to just have you by me, physically touching me. But I was so proud of you, how you took over. Not just as your Captain, but as the Mike I love so much."

We kiss again and I am able to relax into his embrace, both of us feeling physical sparks fanning into flames of desire.

But we're both far too lethargic to take anything further. He's still tired, and I've relaxed completely and am ready for a bit of a nap myself.

I can't help but reflect as I drift off how from a few sparks in the right place, unexpected fires can erupt into full force. Usually, our job is t extinguish the flames, but this fire… This one is different, and we aren't going to ever extinguish this. Mike, Georgie and I – we don't want to. So contrary to everything I've trained for, we'll keep feeding this particular fire.

And I'm just fine with that.


	2. Mike

I didn't sleep much last night. None of us did. We were all just so worried about our Captain who had been electrocuted earlier that day.

I don't think I've ever moved as fast as I did when I saw him go down. Roy grabbed his belt, and I grabbed the collar of his turnout and we just _hauled_ him up the slope. I narrowly missed slamming his head into the defibrillator.

I had to keep my mind on doing double duty after that – even though Hank kept trying to give orders, right up until he was tucked into the ambulance with our other patient and hauled off to Rampart.

The first thing I did when we arrived at Rampart was check on Hank. The second was to let Dixie know that Georgie was at Rampart that day working in the Mental Health Clinic.

At least I got to see Hank before we were called back to the Station. Mullins from B-Shift had come in early to take over. We all breathed a sigh of relief it wasn't Hookraider.

But it wasn't the same. We were all aware it wasn't our Cap in the Captain's bed. Well, the little time we had in our beds. I'm not sure if it was good or bad that we were busy. We didn't have much time to brood. Or sleep. But it was hard working a fire with a different Captain.

And we're going to have a different one for the next week until Hank is cleared to work.

But the result is that I'm bone tired and stretched out next to him in our bed. After being given instructions from Georgie, including an argument from Hank trying to get around those instructions.

Hank never had a chance. He doesn't when both Georgie and I work together. And we might not have been as strict except…

Hank looked so pale, and his eyes showed that he was still in pain.

I've stretched out in the warm spot that Georgie left in our bed, I can't help myself and I've nuzzled into the side of his neck. He's just as bad – I can feel his hand stroking down my back, and I drift to sleep under that firm, almost hypnotic movement.

* * *

I love him, and I was so frightened I'd lose him. For myself and for Georgie, and how the hell would I tell Georgie. It's a constant fear of mine, and Hank's too.

He's finally drifted off to sleep, and I enjoyed the kissing and cuddling and just talking, but he is supposed to be resting in bed.

I've never told Hank how long I've been in love with him (as opposed to just loving him). I met him on my first shift out of the Fie Academy. He was the Senior Lineman at the station I was placed in as a Boot, so we were working closely from the get-go.

What surprised me was that I found that I could talk to him as easily as I could to Georgie. I felt just as comfortable with him as I did with her.

Hank taught me so much about being a Fireman. Stuff you don't learn in the Academy or even growing up as the son of firemen. Little things that come only from actual experience.

I'd always wanted to be a Fireman. In particular, an Engineer. I fell in love with Fie Engines at a very young age, seizing every opportunity to be around them, and to learn more about them.

Hank was different. He'd come from a military family and had joined the army directly from attending a Military Academy school. It was in the army he fell into firefighting he said. And became fascinated by it and (like me) fire engines.

It was no wonder we became fast friends – even if we spent almost no time off duty together.

I'm not a person who makes friends easily. Or who is comfortable around people in general really. Even amongst my shift-mates, I'm detached. Becoming such a fast friend with Hank was a huge surprise to me. And I was genuinely sad when I was moved onto my permanent station after my Boot period was over.

I was lucky though – my friend Hank still maintained contact. He showed he was a friend and Mentor to me, and I appreciated him so very much for that. I didn't love him then. And I was somewhat horrified to find myself attracted to him.

See, I'm not like other guys. Sexually that is. I like men and women. When I feel sexual attraction at all. I'm not a fan of sex for sex sake. I've tried it. With men and women. But... yeah. Not really my scene.

What I'm really into though is kissing and cuddling. As far as I'm concerned – sex is only really wanted when I'm in love with the person. And even then, I much prefer lots of kissing and cuddlilng

I've been in love with Georgie since I was about fifteen. I've loved her since I was about six. We were each other's first kiss. It was wet, sloppy and about as un-sexy as it gets. And we both decided that it must get better with practice, but neither of us were really inclined to practice more.

Yeah – it was a few years later we decided that kissing was much MUCH better with practice, and lots of practice was fun.

Becoming lovers – yeah that came later and not just because we were in love and felt a lot of physical desire.

With Hank though – when he joined the station I was at as our new Engineer, it was as if our working friendship had not been interrupted. We still worked well together and had an uncanny ability to read each other's minds. And Hank made it quite clear to me that he intended to Mentor me to achieve my goal of becoming an Engineer. I started on my own degree in Civil and Fire Engineering - tutored by my best friend who already had that degree.

Hank falls naturally into leadership roles. And fatherly – I've seen him when Georgie or I get sick (or injured) and I've seen him with his daughters. And I saw him as a Captain with the crew. And he treats us all exactly the same way.

As a Crew, we know he's looking out for us. That he _cares_. Trust me – if you've ever had to work under a Captain how doesn't really care about his Crew, then you know the difference.

He's not conventionally handsome. He's like Georgie like that. It's his personality that comes out in his face and eyes especially that really transforms him from nice looking to really handsome. Well in my opinion. I mean, I think both are just stunning anyway and their personalities are both just so much a part of them that I can't separate it from their physical form.

He's one of my two best friends, I loved him and then I fell in love with him. And I was really lucky, because he fell in love with me. Unexpectedly, possibly reluctantly, but the thing about Hank is that once he accepts something, he does it wholeheartedly and without regret.

I'm lying here watching him sleep and feeling a little drowsy again myself. His arm's around me, and I always feel comfortable lying next to him like this. Or next to Georgie like this. Hell, when I'm in the middle of both of them, I fall asleep pretty much immediately and sleep like a baby.

But today my mind is on him. And on the first time he kissed me – really kissed me. A lovers kiss. Funnily enough, it was after I'd been hurt. Before I was an Engineer, well before. Just before he and Georgie got married. The three of us were lovers, or rather he and I were Georgie's lovers. We all shared a bed, but Hank and I hadn't taken that final step.

It was my least favourite types of fire – high rise. The building was 10 storeys high one of the new multi-level apartment buildings that some developers were building. Hank and I were helping the rescue men evacuate the building. He'd just finished his rescue course and found himself when he wasn't manning the Engine Pumps helping the rescue men, or even just doing it himself.

Anyhow, I was on the ladder as Hank was handing out evacuees to me. We wee almost done when a couple panicked and pushed out the window at the same time. I managed to get one safely past me and down, but the second, a middle-aged man, couldn't be controlled, though both Hank and I tried. He managed to knock both himself and me off the ladder. I managed to twist and ensure that I didn't land on him.

He landed on me instead. And it hurt! I remember wondering how a man that large could also be that _bony_! Results – bruising all over, and a couple of cracked ribs. And off work until they healed.

And Hank apparently beside himself with worry.

Georgie took me home from hospital the next morning – the Station was tied up with a fire at a junk yard so we couldn't call Hank and let him know how I was.

Mistake.

He arrived home, determined to find me helpless and really should be in hospital still. It was our fault – we knew what he was like when either I or Georgie were hurt or sick. But it also wasn't our fault we hadn't been able to call him. Because – junkyard fire.

I was hurting, so couldn't wrap myself around him like Georgie did to calm him down. So, it took me completely by surprise when he, very gently, took me in his arms and kissed me. Quite thoroughly too. Leaving me in absolutely no doubt of his feelings, and that his "in love" had moved into physically in love as well.

"You absolute twits! I've been terrified! When I saw you with that guy on you, Michael, I thought you were dead!"

And kissed me again.

I... well all I could do was blink rather blearily. They had me on the GOOD painkillers. "What made you think that?" I won't deny that I was kissing him back. And enjoying it.

"You weren't moving. Or even groaning. I've never descended a ladder so fast in my life!"

"Not dead," Georgie said. "But the Docs said he was badly winded, and he's got a couple of cracked ribs and heavy bruising. So, go a bit easy, Hank, love."

"No. Not dead." I grinned. "And we did try to call the Station before I left the hospital." I managed to put my arms around him and lay back, encouraging him to lie down next to me. But this time, I initiated our kiss. And he responded, a desperate thirsty kiss.

And all this time, Georgie was holding him as well, so he was in the middle of our cuddle pile. Hank sighed deeply. "Just… just don't do it again, Mike. Please. I love you too much to lose you now."

Each time we kiss now, I can't help but remember those words. And I have wondered how long he was holding himself back. I'd get hurt hundreds of times over if that's what he needed to let himself let go like that.

I draw him closer and lean in for a deep kiss. "Don't do that again," I told him. "I love you too much to lose you."

And we lose ourselves in the kiss, and resting is the last thing on our minds for some time.


End file.
